Saturday, January 5, 2008

Who Is Worthy?

I was thinking today and have also stated in a prior post, about how difficult it is to see redemption of the entire human race when we cannot get away from looking at the actions and deeds of the people around us or even our own as well. We very easily judge people by what they do or don’t do for that matter. I guess the reason for that is because when we see someone doing something we don’t think they should be doing, we immediately pass judgment on that person and at the same time of course we fail to even remotely believe that a person “doing that” can be redeemed.

We immediately see that person or persons very unworthy to ever receive anything from God, let alone make it into the Kingdom of Heaven. We could likely ask any faithful church attendee and the vast majority would say the same thing…..a person that does this or that, whatever that may be, is not worthy of making it into Heaven. That is the general consensus of people who class themselves as a believer in Jesus Christ.

Lets look a bit further at this question of whether people that do bad things are worthy to enter into Heaven or not. Let’s take someone that is going to the extreme in what they are doing such as a murderer for example. Is the person that murders worthy of going to Heaven? I would have to say that of course they are not worthy.

What about the one that does things that are “not so bad” but still not something that is acceptable in the eyes of the evangelical church world? Does that mean they have a better chance of entering in because whatever it is they are doing is not quite as bad as the murderer? At what point does a person cease to be “not so bad” so they can become worthy?

What about the ones that by all outward appearance seems to do good all the time? Does that make them worthy to be acceptable to God and make it to Heaven? Where is the point that we become so good so as to be worthy? What makes a person worthy? I know I have raised a lot of questions in the last few paragraphs.

I will end this post by simply telling you who is worthy and who isn’t. There are none of us that are worthy to make it to Heaven. All the good works, prayers, Bible reading, church attendance and whatever else you can think of, will not make you worthy. None of us are worthy. When we look at people and judge them by their deeds or lack of them, to see if they may be worthy or not, we have become judges because we are looking at what people do to see whether they are worthy or not.

You that pass judgment on others because of what they do are you saying you are worthy because you don’t do what these other’s do. Are you actually saying you are worthy of entering Heaven? Is this not a self righteous attitude when you say you are worthy because you are better than others and don’t do what they do?

There is only one that was worthy. His name is Jesus and no one else that has ever lived or will ever live can even come close to being worthy of entering the Kingdom of Heaven. That is why everything had to be done by Him and everything is exactly what He has done. Redemption has nothing to do with whether we are worthy or not, simply because none of us are nor can be worthy. We have been accepted in the Beloved because He and He alone is worthy.

Read Revelation 5:2 to 5:12 and it will tell you Who was worthy to open the seals, and no this is NOT future but it is talking about the cross. If you read verse 9 it will also tell you how many people He redeemed by His blood because He was worthy to do so. He redeemed every kindred, and tongue, and people and nation. None are left out because of what Jesus did and none will enter in because they are worthy in any way. It is that simple. It is also finished.

Posted by Roy at 12:32:05 | Permalink | Comments (13)

Friday, January 4, 2008

Proper Identity

As I have stated before in recent posts, the issue of sin and the understanding of its meaning appears to be the stumbling block for most people in actually seeing the redemption of the world. I know there are terrible things going on in this world and of course they should not be. Will that ever change? I doubt very much it will as it has been ongoing for thousands of years. I am not saying it cannot change because it surely can. Especially when people see redemption for what it actually is. Major transformation happens when that is seen in its true light.

I have a friend in England that I have been in contact with over a number of years and we have had discussions on this very subject over the past several days. He will admit that he has problems seeing things the way I see them as far as redemption is concerned and I fully understand that as a few years ago I had the same problem. I respect his views and he in turn respects mine and we have formed a great friendship over the internet over the years.

To see sin as something people do will always bring you back to thinking “that person cannot be redeemed” if they are still doing “this” or “that”. It causes us to be judgmental because what we are looking at is not what Jesus has done but what they as human beings are doing. Looking at it in that manner is not looking at it properly and redemption of the entire human race is something that will evade us because we are looking at actions and deeds.

Lets all be honest with ourselves, even those of us that may think we are much more holy and just and good than most other people, and look at our own lives. Or go a bit further and go over some of the things you may have thought of over the past week or so. I am sure there are many things that flashed through your head that was not as holy as you would like people to think or even see by your outward performance.

When we look at anything we may say or not say, do or not do, as the criteria for whether we measure up in other people’s eyes and most importantly, in God’s eyes, then we are stepping full force into self righteousness. If you look at anything, and I mean anything, apart from what Christ has done on your behalf for your redemption, then you are a self righteous person. A judgmental attitude will always be in the forefront when we take this view that we have to do something in order to be redeemed.

I personally look at people through how God sees them and it has taken and totally changed how I view life itself here on earth. I do not look at people and see their bad habits as then I would have to look at mine as well. I look at them as redeemed people of God that simply have not come to that knowledge as of yet. When they do come to understanding they are redeemed, then they will begin to view others in that same light as well. That is when we become believers. If you are trying to obtain right standing with God through your works, then you are in unbelief and are trying to achieve something that has already been completed on your behalf.

In this New Year, my prayer is that revelation would come to more and more people as the days go on. It is such a major transformation in ones heart and mind that I can say it is the greatest gift of all because it is seeing Jesus and what He has done. When you can see yourself as God sees you, which is your proper identity, and then you can begin to see others in their true identity as well, which is redeemed by the blood of the Lamb and in right standing with God.

Posted by Roy at 11:10:59 | Permalink | Comments (6)

Thursday, January 3, 2008

Dying for a condition

One thing that has made the message of redemption clearer to me over the past year or so is how I now see why Jesus had to die. Why did it have to be the Son of God, born of a virgin? Could not some other human being have made the same sacrifice and come up with the same results of redemption?

Of course we know that it would have been impossible because Jesus was the only man born without sin as He was not conceived by man. He was conceived by God and therefore was not born with the nature that each and every one of us was born with. Why was it absolutely necessary for the sacrifice for sin to be someone without that nature that was passed on to the human race by Adam?

It was necessary because the sin He died for was the sin of unbelief that Adam fell into when he tried to be like God, when he was actually already like God. He tried to become something he already was. He was already perfect and holy and just in God’s sight but he partook of the wrong tree to try and make himself like God.

I know the vast majority of us always looked at the sin that Jesus died for as our actions and deeds. We were always told that he died for our drinking, dancing, smoking, cursing, and anything else we did that was looked upon as bad things. That is still what is being taught today by the evangelical church, therefore they preach that you must stop doing what you are doing and do “good things” instead. Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with doing good things, and we should be. But if you are doing them to try to gain favor with God, then you are wasting your time.

If Jesus took away the sin of the world, and that sin is our bad actions and deeds, then why do we still have those things? Why is it that we cannot overcome so we can become “good Christians” like the church constantly tries to hammer into people’s heads? The reason is that it is not for our actions and deeds that He died for, but to take away what Adam passed on to the human race.

He did not die for our actions because it’s quite obvious these things still exist. What He died for is a “condition” and not and “action”. He took away the “condition” that Adam had placed the human race under. That condition was Adam’s very nature that he took upon himself when he strayed from the Tree of Life to the Tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Simply put, he went into unbelief by trying to become something he already was. That nature was totally annihilated at the cross and a new race of human beings was born in Christ. That nature does not exist any longer. We now have a new nature that is a righteous nature because He took the entire human race (spiritually speaking) into Himself at the cross and rose again the third day with that new race.

Before the cross everyone was born with the nature of Adam (sin). After the cross everyone is born with the new nature (righteousness). Romans 3:10 (actually a quote from Psalms 14) says that “there are none righteous, no not one”. I believe if He was to come back and say something similar, He would now say “there are none unrighteous, no not one”. This is simply because He did the entire work apart from any of our involvement. When He saw the work was completed and His Father was satisfied with the required sacrifice to restore the human race back to His Father, He said “it is finished”. And that is exactly what it is…..finished. We all have been restored back to Father God and are completely secure in Him.

Posted by Roy at 14:01:40 | Permalink | Comments (7)

Tuesday, January 1, 2008

My rest and peace

A happy and prosperous new year to everyone. As we begin a new year I have been reflecting over the past year in my search for Truth and I see that there are still many unanswered questions in my mind and heart. I have also come to the conclusion that it does not matter that questions remain as I doubt anyone will ever have all the answers they would like to have while living here on earth.


However, there is one thing that has become what I would call “forever settled in my heart” and that is the fact that our Redeemer has come and He fully and totally accomplished what He came to do. As I read through the Old Testament scriptures I see it more and more clearly that the prophecies were about Jesus and what He would accomplish at the cross. Not something that is in our present day future, although it was future to them when they prophesied it because it was before the cross that God showed these prophets what was coming.

It has been a bit difficult at times to see some of these things, and there are yet many that I do not understand, because of the “church upbringing” that I and most of those that believe in the total redemption of the entire human race had as well. When you go through almost 30 years of listening to the bondage and the poison that comes from the vast majority of pulpits, the only way our thinking pattern can be changed is for God to reveal Himself in us and to show us what it means to have been redeemed.

The scriptures (OT writings) are quite clear in Isaiah, Ezekiel, Daniel etc that the purpose for the Son of God to come and redeem the human race back to Father God was to get rid of the sin that was passed on to everyone. It was also for Him to take the judgment that was ready to be sent upon the human race upon Himself so that none of the human race would have to face any of it.

What is this sin I mentioned in the last paragraph? It is the sin of unbelief that Adam fell into when he tried to be like God when he actually already was like God because God had created him in His image. Is the sin that Jesus died for an action? No, I believe the sin Jesus died for is a condition. If He died for our actions and deeds then why do we all still have things in our lives that are at times “not so good” in the eyes of people? It is because we are still human and that is the way God created us.

We must look at people through His eyes and not through what we may perceive as good or bad or anything else. The love of God was shed abroad in our hearts, not to judge others for what they may be doing or not doing, but to see them accepted in the Beloved. If we look at what others do then we must look at what we do or don’t do as well and we all fall into the same category when it comes to that. If we look at actions and deeds to see if a person is holy or not so holy, then we are looking at them through our own minds and hearts and we are arriving at our own conclusions.

God sent His Son to redeem the world by taking away their sin. Not actions and deeds, but the condition Adam had placed the entire human race under. He did this at the cross and the entire human race was restored back to Father God at that time which is why Jesus could say “It Is Finished”. There is nothing left to be done. The cross was the end of the human race under Adam and a new race of redeemed people began. We are all part of that new race in Christ. That is my peace and my rest as we begin a new year.

Posted by Roy at 12:48:10 | Permalink | Comments (1) »

Saturday, September 22, 2007

Effortless Perfection

Over the past several days I have read a few things regarding perfection on the Boldgrace.com web site and also some comments regarding the same as well. One comment in particular on Boldgrace.com was by Randy (a good friend of mine) and we also discussed this very same thing a few days ago over breakfast.

Randy said this in his comment “How else is this even remotely possible if indeed it isn’t accomplished for us in Christ.” This is something to really ponder and seriously look at because if it was not accomplished by Christ on our behalf, like Randy said when we had breakfast, if that is the case then all of us are in deep trouble. Who do you suppose could ever even begin to come close to “being holy as He is holy”? Let’s be honest with ourselves and real as well and readily admit that this is not in any way possible apart from Christ having attained this perfection for us.

We have to realize of course that this perfection we are talking about is not in our flesh and it has nothing to do with the flesh. It has nothing to do with our actions and deeds. This is a spiritual thing we are talking about. We were placed in perfect harmony with God by what Jesus did at the cross and that totally apart from any of us being involved in the process. The new covenant was made between God and Christ and not us. We are partakers of its benefits of course because we were all in Christ when He died and resurrected but the covenant was sealed in Christ.

We have the other side of this as well and it is those that are trying to do something, anything, to appear acceptable and perfect in God’s sight. This of course is impossible as what people are trying to do is bring the flesh to a state of perfection. A verse quoted by Cliff on Boldgrace.com comes to mind and it is Hebrews 7:19. For the law (or trying to keep it) made nothing perfect. Trying to keep God’s laws will never accomplish the perfection that people are trying to achieve.

The rest of verse 19 tells us what did make everything perfect and that was the bringing in of a better hope. What is this better hope mentioned here? It is of course Jesus Christ and His accomplishments on the cross. That and only that could make everything perfect. After it was all done He could say “it is finished”.

I personally have it settled in my heart that the redemption of the entire world has been accomplished by “the bringing in of a better hope” and I have fully laid aside the futile attempts to try and attain a perfection that is pleasing to God. I already am in perfect harmony with God through Jesus and nothing I do or don’t do can change that. The churches are trying their utmost to get people to put a lifetime of effort in trying to accomplish a perfection that is absolutely impossible because they are trying to perfect the flesh. Look at it as what it is, a perfection that is spiritual and nothing you do or don’t do can ever change that. It is really finished, whether you believe it or not. Even our unbelief doesn’t change the fact.

Posted by Roy at 12:13:42 | Permalink | Comments (25)

Tuesday, September 4, 2007

Breaking Laws continued

So what about us here and now in this day and age? When we do something that breaks one of God’s laws, does that mean we are sinning and are in danger of falling out of favor with God? Another thing to remember is that we (gentiles) were never under any law. The law was specifically for the Jews. The law was nailed to the tree so on this side of the cross we are not under any law. Jesus was never under any law either. Although the Pharisees looked at Him as breaking the law and sinning, as do the modern day Pharisees when they try to get people to follow their laws as well as God’s laws. How can you break a law where there is no law?

Let’s remember one thing here and that is that Jesus did not die because we do bad things. That is not why He died. He died so those things we do could never be held against us. This needs to be stressed as it is something that is very important in our understanding of the gospel of grace and peace. Jesus did not take punishment on the cross because we were breaking God’s law. The punishment He took included nailing the law to the cross. He took the sin (singular) of Adam’s transgression to the cross which was the sin of unbelief.

Adam’s transgression held everyone in bondage because it was passed on to every human being born prior to the cross. The cross took away that bondage and set us free. It did not set us free from bad things we do. If that was the case then we would have to say that the cross was a total failure. It set us free from the bondage that we were held under by the transgression of Adam.

We were all taken from the captivity of the sin of Adam and taken into the captivity that is the righteousness of Jesus Christ. He led captivity to the bondage that was under Adams transgression and took the human race into the captivity that is His righteousness. We are now prisoners of the Lord like Paul said, as He has taken us captive. You can not remove yourself from this captivity of righteousness any more than you could remove yourself from the captivity that was under Adam’s transgression. It is a total work of the cross apart from anything we do or don’t do and it is in effect whether we believe it is or not.

I want to stress again that it’s important to remember always that Jesus did not have to die because you or I did bad things. Jesus had to die to remove the law that was imposed until the restoration of all things. That restoration took place at the cross and we are now righteous and holy in His sight. It has nothing to do with our belief. It has everything to do with the fact Jesus exercised His faith and that is how He set the entire world free from the penalty of sin. The law is dead and nothing in it can be held against us. It is finished.
Posted by Roy at 11:57:48 | Permalink | Comments (14)

Monday, September 3, 2007

Breaking Laws

I remember over the years when attending the evangelical churches for almost a quarter of a century that many times I heard it preached that Jesus was without sin. I doubt if you could find any person that calls themselves Christian that would disagree with that. It is something that is a given and of course I fully agree with that fact as well. If He had sin then He could not have accomplished what He did at the cross as it had to be a sinless and perfect sacrifice.

We also seem to think that God only gave 10 commandments to the Jewish people for them to keep but the actual fact is, He gave 613 commandments for them to keep. There were only ten given to Moses and of course those were written down, but they were only a very small part of what God gave for them to keep. We have to keep in mind that not only the ten were to be kept but all the remaining others as well.

Most churches will tell you to this day that the commandments have to be kept and if you do not keep them, then you are sinning. I think we can all agree that this is what is preached and has been preached for many centuries. It’s preached that if we break God’s laws that He gave we are then living in sin. We are then out of fellowship with God and He turns His back on us until we turn ourselves around and promise never to do this or that again, well until the next time that is.

As I mentioned in the first paragraph, we all know that Jesus was without sin. He was the perfect God/man here on earth and was totally without sin. Let’s ask ourselves a question here……..did Jesus break any of the laws that God had given for the Jews to keep? I think if you follow along in the gospels that you will see he broke many laws and on many occasions as well. In one instance He healed someone on the Sabbath and He knew that was against the law because the Sabbath was to be kept holy and nothing was to be done on that day. So if breaking the law means we sin, and Jesus broke many laws and was without sin, how can we reconcile these two things because both of them are correct? If breaking the laws of God is considered sin then how can we say that Jesus was without sin and at the same time know for a fact He broke laws while here on earth?

The reason Jesus could break laws and still be without sin is that He was dead to sin from the moment He was born here on earth. The transgression and disobedience of Adam that was passed to the entire human race was not passed on to Him because of how He was conceived and born. All those born prior to the cross were born with the bondage of Adam’s transgression. Those born after the cross were also born dead to sin because Jesus had nailed the sin (singular) to the cross. Romans 6:2 tells us that we are dead to sin. The verse also tell you that it is possible to live as if this was not so. When Jesus went to the cross He did not die for transgressions. He did not die because of our actions and deeds. He died so the law that held transgressions against us could be put to death and done away with. He died for the sin (singular) of the world. If breaking the laws of God means it is sin, then Jesus could not have been sinless as we have seen he broke the law many times while He was here on earth.

Continued tomorrow.

Posted by Roy at 12:57:32 | Permalink | Comments (13)

Sunday, August 19, 2007

In The Faith

Over the past few days I have been posting about how feelings of alienation from God are in the mind and also the fact the entire human race was redeemed at the cross through His blood. This is made quite clear in Colossians 1.

When we keep on reading in 1:23 it says “if ye continue in the faith and be not moved away from the Gospel” . Most of course would say that we have to continue to have faith for this to be so but that is not what this verse is saying at all. If you do not stay grounded in the faith, does this mean you are no longer unreproveable in God’s sight? Of course not because that is a once for all event that was done at the cross. What will happen is that you will lose the awareness of it when you move away from what the Gospel actually says and you will feel the alienation in your mind. You will move back under the condemnation of the law because the law points out faults.

We must stay “in the faith” because the faith of Jesus that we live by points out righteousness and that you are unblameable, holy and unreproveable in His sight. It is very important to continue seeing ourselves in this light if we are to continue having His peace and grace in our lives. If we go back to seeing ourselves and others through the eyes of the law, we are reverting back to the old way of thinking that we had for years and all that did was keep us in bondage and condemnation. Stay “in the faith” and your mind will not be condemning you and make you feel like God has left your side.

Yesterday I mentioned a bit about the word unreproveable and I went a bit further this morning for a truer meaning. In God’s sight being “unreproveable” means He cannot call in any debt or charge against you, He cannot bring you to account for anything, you stand unaccused and blameless is His sight. We have to keep in mind that it is in His sight that this is. In other words there is absolutely nothing that can ever stand between you and God. It has all been paid for fully and completely by Jesus at the cross on our behalf. We are now “in Christ” and that is where God sees us. That is why we are seen as holy and perfect.

Don’t let any church doctrine move you away from seeing this awesome truth contained in these few verses. Don’t let anyone try to lead you away from what is so clearly settled in many verses written by Paul. Letting anyone steer you away from these truths will only bring you back under guilt and condemnation. I personally had enough of that for over 25 years and I am simply not interested in any church doctrine that places the onus back on me to obtain anything from God.
I walked away from that system 6 or 7 years ago and began my search for Truth and have absolutely no intention of returning to their bondage and control.

If you are beginning to see things “the old way” again, then you are slowly removing yourself from the faith (v23) and you will begin to see things in light of the law like you were in times past. As I stated in my post of August 16/07, I will not be moved. There is nothing to move back to once you have experienced the freedom from guilt and condemnation that comes when we begin to understand the Gospel of Grace and Peace. Be careful who you listen to. It could be detrimental to your spiritual health.

Have I got it all figured out? Absolutely not. This quest for Truth that I am on is a lifetime journey of letting the Lord teach me and continue to reveal Himself in me. One thing I will say though is this……what little I have learned in the past year and a half regarding the redemption of the world, is something I would not even consider trading for the other 25 or so years of being under several different “churchianity” doctrines that kept being pounded in my head. I am very thankful those days are gone and I intend to continue on this awesome journey of letting the Holy Spirit do His work in me because after all, He is THE Teacher.

Posted by Roy at 12:35:29 | Permalink | Comments (12)

Saturday, August 18, 2007

In Whose Sight?

Over the past few days I have been posting on how we can feel alienated from God in our minds, which of course has nothing to do with the actual fact that no one is alienated form God any longer due to the work of Jesus on the cross. This feeling of alienation is due to the fact that when you did something you should not be doing, that it was a mark against you in God’s sight. You believe that what you did, God took note and marked it against you.

When your mind begins to be renewed to the truth of the Gospel, you will see that this is a false assumption. You will see that nothing can separate you from the love of God. Your deeds and actions are no longer being held or marked against you by God. When you sin, because of the shed blood of Jesus Christ, it cannot be held against you. Its been paid for in full and God is satisfied that the sin issue has been dealt with once and for all.

We were all told that when we came to Christ our slate was wiped clean and Jesus had taken care of all our sins, up to that point at least. But then we were told that each and every time we would do something wrong it was written again on that same slate that had been wiped clean. The problem with this is that it is certainly true that our slate was wiped clean but this was not done when we first came to knowledge of the Lord. This was done at the cross and not only was it wiped clean, the slate no longer exists because God does not hold any wrong doing against anyone as we have seen.

We now come to verse 22 in Colossians chapter 1 and we see that through His death He presents us as holy, unblameable and unreproveable. We all know that when we look at people or they look at us, they do not see us nor do we see them in a way that appears they are holy, righteous and unblameable. We look at people in the flesh and also look at their deeds and actions. I guess we would be hard pressed to have anyone follow any of us around for a few days or even a few hours and they would be able to say whether we appear to be holy and unblameable. I guess most of us could ask our spouses just how perfect we are and if they were honest………well you get the drift.

Did God send His Son into the world to reconcile people that would never again commit sin? If He did then it is quite apparent that He failed miserably. I am sure most of us will agree that we at times do things that would be classed sin in the eyes of the church world. So if we have been reconciled and we still do things we ought not, then how can we look at this and still know we are reconciled to God?

In order to properly understand verse 22 you have to read the last part of the verse which I left out when I quoted it. This portion of the verse holds the key as to its meaning. This part of the verse says it clearly that we are holy, unblameable and unreproveable IN HIS SIGHT. This has nothing to do with how I see things in my mind or how you see others through your own thoughts either. This reconciliation where we are seen as holy and perfect is in God’s eyes. We put the emphasis on ourselves and others in order to see people as holy and perfect. The emphasis has to be placed on what Jesus did to reconcile us back to God and it has nothing to do with our own actions and deeds.

The word “unreproveable” is quite interesting as it means that in God’s sight He can find absolutely nothing that He could mark or use against you ever again. Jesus paid the price and sin can only be paid for once. This of course was done and paid for at the cross and no one’s sins can ever be held against them because God now sees all of us as unreproveable. The slate has been destroyed and in His sight we are blameless. Don’t expect anyone else to see you in this way but the important thing is for you to know that in God’s sight, that is exactly how you are seen. Live by God’s view of you and not other’s view of you. It will begin a major transformation in your life.

Posted by Roy at 12:21:36 | Permalink | Comments (1) »

Friday, August 17, 2007

Feeling Alienated

We read in Colossians 1:20 that Jesus made peace through His blood of His cross and at that time He reconciled all things unto Himself, whether they be things in earth or in heaven. The reason for this is in verse 18 where it says that Christ should have preeminence (superiority) in ALL things.

This was accomplished at the cross and it is at that time that He reconciled all. I know this is not the popular belief when it comes to saying that He reconciled all but in order to not agree that it is all, then a verse like this has to be skipped over and I suppose pretend that it is not saying He reconciled all.

I am sure that the vast majority of us have felt at one time or another alienated from God. We were of course sure He had left us because it sure felt at the time that He did. Verse 21 says that at times the Colossians felt that alienation but Paul was writing to them in this particular verse to let them know that they were never in fact alienated from Him because He had just finished telling them they had all been reconciled back to God. He then tells them where this alienation comes from. It is simply in our minds. Regardless of how strong you felt this alienation, it was only in your mind. The mind needs to be renewed to the Gospel and then we can see that even our wicked works do not alienate us. We may think and feel we are, but it is only in our minds.

Can our works, whether good or bad alienate us or bring us closer to God? No of course not but if our minds are not renewed, then we will think exactly that. When we do good we will think we are drawing closer to Him and when we do bad we will think we have been pushed aside by Him until such a time as we do good again and ask forgiveness, only to wait a few days and do the same things over again.

We have to have our minds renewed so we can see the Gospel for what it is. He made peace between the human race and God through the blood He shed on the cross. We have to get our minds renewed to see this so that when we do feel alienated, instead of condemnation we will see we are still ok in our right standing with God, apart from anything we do or don’t do. Blessed is the man whom God declares righteous even though he has not done it right. Blessed is the man that when he sins, God does not count it against him. To know these things is the only way to have the peace of God reign in our hearts and minds.

If we continue to walk in condemnation because of what deeds and actions we do, then our minds need to be renewed to what the Gospel actually says. Jesus did not die because of our actions and deeds. He died for the sin of unbelief that was dropped on the entire human race by the sin of Adam. If our righteousness is determined by what we do to gain it or keep it, then lets all be honest with ourselves……..none of us will ever even come close to making it. If you are reading this thinking you can establish your own righteousness then perhaps you should read Romans 10 and see what Paul told them about this very thing. They needed to be saved from their ignorance because they were trying to establish their own righteousness. If you are trying to establish your own right standing with God (righteousness) by your church attendance, tithing, doing good deeds etc., then you as well need to be saved from your ignorance of God’s righteousness.

Don’t forget your alienation is only in your mind. It is very important to see this because there is no longer any alienation from God for anyone.

Posted by Roy at 12:28:17 | Permalink | Comments (1) »